When Access Creates Power, Safeguards Are Essential
Sometimes the people providing access hold more influence than anyone realises.
I’ve noticed how easily conversations about access focus on trust while overlooking the power that access can create.
Access is never neutral.
When one person controls communication, timing, or interpreting, a power imbalance exists, even when everyone has good intentions.
For Deaf people, access often depends on others to mediate language.
That dependency does not remove autonomy, but it does require safeguards.
When systems pretend power does not exist, boundaries blur.
And when boundaries blur, risk increases quietly, gradually, and often unnoticed.
Naming power is not about distrust.
It is about designing safety before harm occurs.
